Introduction
This guide is designed to orient you to relevant resources for Dr. Keeley's course on U.S.-Central America relations. The guide is organized into sections based on the types of primary and secondary sources you may need to find. Use the menu at the top of the page to navigate to the various sections.
Please note that the guide is not comprehensive. Depending on your research topic, you may need to seek out additional information beyond the resources listed here.
We recommend scheduling an individual appointment with a librarian for more in-depth assistance with your research. To schedule an appointment, go to:
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Developing an Initial Search Strategy
The following questions will help you develop an initial search strategy. Given the large amount of potentially relevant material for this project, it's important to think through a research plan, with the caveat that your plan will likely evolve or even change completely based on the information you find.
- What is your topic at this stage? What questions do you have about your topic? What are you hoping to learn or discover through your research?
- What time periods and geographic locations are most relevant to your research? What are the most important events associated with your topic? Who are the most important communities/groups/individuals associated with your topic? What political, economic, and/or social aspects of your topic may be relevant?
- What primary sources do you think will be useful for your project? Consider news sources, government and non-government organizations and agencies, eyewitness accounts, etc.
- What do you hope to learn from secondary sources? What aspects of your topic do you think you need to know more about? What kind of background information may be helpful?
- What keywords will be useful for searching databases and search engines? Consider the key topics, issues, and concepts, including broader and narrower terms. List as many keywords as you can.